CONTROLLING A PROCESSOR CACHE USING A REAL-TIME ATTRIBUTE
First Claim
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1. A processor device comprising:
- a cache;
a cache controller coupled to the cache to manage the replacement of a plurality of cache lines in the cache, in accordance with a replacement policy in which each of the cache lines has an associated age indicator; and
a storage location that is to be configured to define a memory map having a cacheable region, an un-cacheable region, and a real time region, wherein upon a cache miss of an address that lies in the real time region, the cache controller is to respond by loading content at said address into a cache line and then prevent the cache line from aging as would a cache line that is in the cacheable region.
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Abstract
A processor device has a cache, and a cache controller that manages the replacement of a number of cache lines in the cache, in accordance with a replacement policy. A storage location is to be configured to define a memory map having a cacheable region, an un-cacheable region, and a real time region. Upon a cache miss of an address that lies in the real time region, the cache controller responds by loading content at the address into a cache line, and then prevents the cache line from aging as would a cache line that is in the cacheable region. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
30 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A processor device comprising:
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a cache; a cache controller coupled to the cache to manage the replacement of a plurality of cache lines in the cache, in accordance with a replacement policy in which each of the cache lines has an associated age indicator; and a storage location that is to be configured to define a memory map having a cacheable region, an un-cacheable region, and a real time region, wherein upon a cache miss of an address that lies in the real time region, the cache controller is to respond by loading content at said address into a cache line and then prevent the cache line from aging as would a cache line that is in the cacheable region. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for controlling a processor cache, comprising:
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receiving a request for content at a memory address, and in response accessing a processor cache that has a replacement policy, to generate one of a cache hit and a cache miss for the memory address; in response to the cache miss, loading content at the memory address into a cache line; performing a lookup of the memory address to produce an attribute that is associated with the memory address; marking the cache line with an aging indicator that is based on the attribute, wherein the marked aging indicator is one of a slow aging indicator and a normal aging indicator; and in response to marking with the slow aging indicator, preventing the cache line from aging as would another cache line that is marked with the normal aging indicator. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer system comprising:
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main memory having stored therein a program; and a processor device having a cache coupled to the main memory, a cache controller coupled to the cache to manage the replacement of a plurality of cache lines in the cache, in accordance with a replacement policy, and storage that is to be configured by the program while being executed by the processor device to define a memory map having a cacheable region, an un-cacheable region, and a real time region, wherein upon a cache miss of an address that lies in the real time region, the cache controller is to respond by loading content at said address into a cache line and wherein the loaded cache line ages more slowly than a cache line that is in the cacheable region. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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19. An article of manufacture comprising:
a machine-readable storage medium having stored therein a program that when executed by a processor device configures a control register of the processor device to define a real time region in a memory map for the processor device, wherein the memory map can also have a cacheable region and an un-cacheable region defined in the control register, and wherein the real time region contains code and data of an interrupt service routine that is part of the program. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
Specification